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28 Weeks: Tracking the road to Galway 2016
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09-01-2016 1:59pm#1The Goal: Challenge Galway Half-Distance - 26 June 2016
A bit of background...
I went from Engineering in college into a 2 year Software Development course. After spending some long days sitting at a computer, slowly gaining weight and becoming increasingly unfit, it became obvious that if I was to pursue a career in software I'd have to make a very conscious effort to keep fit around the day job.
2013
So the day I started my first graduate job (January 2013) I also started a 28 Day Pat Divilly training plan. I lost over a stone and jump started my fitness efforts, building up 5k-10k runs and being more conscious of what I ate. I saw the benefit and motivation of having set goals so quickly signed up for more 5k and 10k events. I got a road bike and started cycling to work. That summer I reached a big goal of my first sprint triathlon in Lanesboro (after a lot of work building up my swimming from a very weak level). Later that year I tackled the Lough Key sprint triathlon.
2014
I entered loads of events in 2014 and pushed my running PB times for 5k/10k and struggled through my first half marathon (last minute with minimal training, first run beyond 10km!). The only triathlon I did was the Mullaghmore sprint. My biggest advance this year was with building up my cycling, completing the Ring of Kerry charity cycle in July.
2015
2015 was less active, a lot of the same running events as 2014 but with much less training. Longest run was 10k and I didn't get around to entering any triathlons. On the positive side, I did focus on one 10k and broke my 2-year PB by 2mins. In July I completed the Ring of Kerry cycle again and made some good advances working up my open water swimming beyond the sprint range, from 750m to 2000m.
The swimming was always my weakest sport, so having now swam, cycled and ran beyond each individual "Half Ironman" distance, the seed of a possible big future goal was set. Dublin Ironman 70.3 2016 was on my radar, then in October Challenge Galway 2016 added a half-distance race to the line up. I'm based in Galway and the route passes my house, so it seemed a great fit.
In November I signed up for my biggest challenge yet. After scrambling for different training plans and some focused direction, I combined two training plans into a 28 week plan, which started on 14th December 2015.
Tomorrow I'll be finishing Weeks 1-4 of the training - will keep you posted. Thanks in advance for any advice or tips along the way!8
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The first job was to find a training plan, after trawling online forums "Don Fink" books kept popping as recommendations so I invested in "Ironfit Secrets for Half Iron-Distance Triathlon Success" by Don and Melanie Fink.
The half Ironman training plans in the book are only 16 weeks, with 3 plan options;- Just Finish
- Intermediate
- Competitive
So my plan is to do weeks 1-12 of the Just Finish plan, then jump into week 1 of the Intermediate plan and follow it though to race day. The training hours drop slightly when changing plans but it will be a welcome ease-off for a couple of weeks!
I've transferred the plan into a spreadsheet and here's how the total weekly hours are looking;
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That's the first four weeks complete. Working off a training plan is definitely pushing the training harder than I would have on my own. The balance of swim/bike/run seems good so far.
I'd be tempted to push some of the cycles further but very wary about picking up an injury so generally sticking closely to the plan. My non-commute cycles so far have been the Galway-Barna loop which has some nice climbing so getting some good training into the 1hr cycle.
Would people recommend fitting in an Olympic distance triathlon between now and 26 June?
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Wednesday, 13 Jan 2016- 0:45 Run - 8.5km
Friday, 15 Jan 2016- 0:30 Cycle (Wattbike) - 17km
- 0:16 Brick Run - 3km
- 0:45 Swim (Pool) - 1650m
Saturday, 16 Jan 2016- 0:45 Swim (Pool) - 1600m
Sunday, 17 Jan 2016- 2:16 Cycle - 51km
- 1:00 Run - 10.5km
This week was the biggest threat to the plan yet! Due to busy evenings I had left most of the training until Thurs-Sun. Then a hard frost hit on Thursday so the bike or run wasn't an option around Galway. I tried to hit the pool but it was packed with kids.
Luckily I had no work on Friday, but the roads were still frosty, so I went to the gym and tried out their Wattbikes for the first time. It was very hot sweaty work (warm gym) but managed to get a planned 30min planned cycle with 15min brick run on the treadmill, followed by a swim.
To throw another spanner in the works I had to make an unscheduled trip up to Donegal for the weekend. Packed the bike in the car and managed to fit a 51km cycle in on Sunday morning and after the drive back to Galway got out for a 1hr run... completing weekly training plan with 1.5hrs to spare!
The training ramps up another 30mins this week (to 06:30 hrs), so need to get some sessions covered earlier this week.0 -
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